Our elections have replaced horse racing as the sport of kings. Only these kings are multi-billionaire, corporate moguls who by the divine right, not of God, but the United States Supreme Court and its Citizens United decision, are now buying politicians like so much pricey horseflesh.

This week was a tumultuous one around the world. U.S. officials condemned a "deplorable" video showing Marines urinating on the corpses of suspected Taliban fighters in Afghanistan -- and categorically denied any U.S. involvement in the car bomb killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran. In Europe, Standard & Poor's stripped France of its AAA credit rating (sacre bleu!) and downgraded eight other countries. In China, Apple halted sales of the iPhone 4S after a near-riot outside the company's flagship store in Beijing (what does Siri have to say about that?). Meanwhile, here at home, Rick Perry condemned "vulture capitalism," a Gingrich-aligned super PAC released a long Romney-as-rapacious-capitalist video that looked like it had been produced by Occupy, and John McCain called Citizens United "one of the worst decisions I have ever seen." Welcome to 2012's beyond left and right politics.